Google launches digital skills platform in Malta
Google has launched the Digital Workshop programme in Malta. This is a new online platform offering free training to everyone, from SMEs to professionals and students who want to grow their digital skills and increase their knowledge in digital marketing.
The digital skills gap remains one of the big challenges for the countries in the European Union. According to the European Commission, almost half of the EU population (47%) is not properly digitally skilled, yet in the near future 90% of jobs will require some level of digital skills. The EC estimates that 756,000 jobs will remain unfilled by 2020 because of this skills gap.
In Malta, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index, 21.3% of the population have never used the internet (EU average: 14.5%). When it comes to digital skills, only 49% of individuals have basic digital skills. This represents a decrease from 52% in 2015 (EU average: 56%).
It is to help tackle this digital skills gap that Google has created the Digital Workshop platform, available to everyone in Malta. Google’s Digital Workshop allows anyone to get their personalised digital tune-up online from anywhere at any time. The platform covers more than twenty topics explained through digestible, action-oriented, and plainly spoken lessons. These vary from how to build a presence online, to running social media marketing, or using the opportunities offered by mobile phones to attract more clients, and much more. Users can choose the topics they want to learn about, or complete the whole online course, receiving a certificate from Google and IAB Europe.
Minister for Competitiveness and Digital, Maritime and Services Economy Emmanuel Mallia said: “Malta is facing a widening skills gap, even if there are many efforts from every country to expand the digital skills in different target groups. The lack in digital skills in EU businesses and governments are impacting the ability to benefit from opportunities that advanced technologies and digitisation present to us. At the same time, the same advancement in technology and digital tools is making many jobs obsolete, while creating demand for a new set of skills. This has created an urgent need to upskill the workforce. Upskilling the workforce in the different commercial sectors is a priority to the EU, and this is also the same for Malta.
“Malta is well-placed in many digital aspects when compared to other EU countries. However, we need to increase the basic digital skills which may be hampering business to flourish. Launching a pan-European comprehensive training strategy would go a long way towards upskilling the workforce. Organisations like eSkills Malta Foundation and the National Skills Council can guide us the way forward.”
Country Manager for Greece, Malta and Cyprus Google Grigoris Zarifopoulos said: “We believe technology can be a force for good, helping students and professionals to succeed in their career and businesses. As technology and the web play a bigger role in our lives, we at Google see it as our job to provide the tools to help people make the most of this opportunity. We have already provided digital skills training to two million Europeans over the past two years and today we are happy to make our Digital Workshop programme available to everyone in Malta. Whether you’re a student looking for your first job, a small business trying to attract new customers, or a blogger inter- ested in promoting your contents across the world, I’d like to encourage you to take advantage of the free training we are making available today.”
Many people have already started to make the most of the digital opportunity. Making use of the free training offered by Google Antonios Fiorakis, founder of Incrediblue, an online booking platform for boating holidays, learnt about the fundamentals of digital analytics. He said: “The training helped me measure how our users behave. I was amazed by the accuracy of data insights. I discovered details about my customers that helped me grow my sales”.